Movie Fights
Movie Fights 'is one of the three main shows on the [[Screen Junkies|'Screen Junkies]] YouTube channel. It is a weekly competition where three contestants debate pop culture topics. In its current incarnation the competition consists of three regular rounds of approximately 15 minutes followed for four speed round questions of 1 minute. First contestant to 4 points wins. Contestants are given the regular round questions ahead of time so they can prepare their arguments ahead of time (Not that they always do). Contestants are expected to provide answers to the speed round questions on the spot. Mind blanks are common, but making up fictional movies is totally allowed, provided the fact-checker doesn't catch on. The show first began production in 2014. The current host of Movie Fights is [[Hal Rudnick|'Hal Rudnick']]. [[Dan Murrell|'Dan Murrell']] acts as fact-checker, while Danielle Radford is social media ambassador. Until his dismissal in October 2017, the host of Movie Fights was [[Andy Signore|'Andy Signore']].' History Movie Fights was originally created to provide the employees of [[Screen Junkies|'Screen Junkies]]'' ''something to do to fill in time between writing [[Honest Trailer|'Honest Trailers']]. It original had an wrestling-influenced aesthetic which enhanced the absurdity of grown adults passionately debating pop culture minutiae like a competitive sport. The adversarial style of the show was intended to be funny. However as the online fan community became more toxic, the "fighting" style began to more closely resemble real-world pop culture wars and it sometimes lead to real-world consequences. For example, the highly divisive episode "'Suicide Squad - Rotten or Fresh?"'' lead to one of the contestants receiving death threats on social media. In late 2017, after '''Andy Signore was fired, Screen Junkies ceased production of Movie Fights for two months and burnt copious amounts of sage in the studio. When Movie Fights returned, Screen Junkies changed the style and format of the show in an effort to make it provoke less divisive outrage. This included renovating the set to resemble a generic game show, reducing the number of contestants to two and requiring contestants to stand behind podiums. Paradoxically, these changes provoked intense divisive outrage. Many fans vehemently and repeatedly demanded the return of the original set, three contestants and chairs. Eventually, Screen Junkies reintroduced three contestants and chairs. One of the chairs sinks repeatedly. If Screen Junkies is too cheap to replace the sinking chair, there's no way they have the budget to renovate the entire set again. Contestants Contestants consist of Screen Junkies employees and guests, often from other YouTube channels. Regular contestants include [[Dan Murrell|'Dan Murrell']], [[Spencer Gilbert|S'pencer Gilbert']], [[Joe Starr|'Joe Starr']], Hal Rudnick, Nick Mundy '''and '''Mike Carlson. The show has featured some celebrity contestants including Kevin Smith, Elijah Wood, Tony Revolori, Seth Rogen and Kumail Nanjiani. The current Movie Fights Champion Dan Murrell. Previous champions include Cucumber, a puppet, and Spencer Gilbert, a human. Movie Fights Live Extravaganza In May 2018, Screen Junkies ran the Movie Fights Live Extravaganza fundraiser benefiting the Women in Film. The epic 3.5 hour show was a veritable Infinity War of over 50 Screen Junkies alumni. It culminated with a puppet, Cucumber, winning the Movie Fights championship belt. He totally deserved it. The Screen Junkies community together raised over $38,000 for charity. #OwlNation #OwlNation is a running joke that commenced in 2018. In one episode, host Hal Rudnick '''noted that both he and '''Movie Fights writer/researcher Lon Harris were wearing owl-themed t-shirts. Hal then proceeded to jokingly refer to creating an owl-based website with Lon while shilling for SquareSpace. This then transformed into Hal regularly greeting the audience with the line "Hoot! Hoot! Where my owls at?" and calling out #OwlNation. Movie Fights viewers have embraced #OwlNation and have sent in photoshopped images of the hosts heads on the owls from The Guardians of Gahoole during the show. Adherents of #OwlNation call themselves''' "'Gahooligans''," a portmanteau of Gahoole and Hooligan.Category:Screen Junkies